Page 35 of Alpha Mates

“So, what do you want?” Aiden asks, breaking the silence. No one speaks. “Hello?”

“We came to check on Julian, but we got lost in your lands until Emitt found us,” Isabel says, still staring at me like I’m a stranger. “As you can imagine, the pack’s worried about their new alpha disappearing on his first day. We know the coronation was a surprise, but everyone wants to know—”

“What the hell is going on, Julian?” Beckett cuts in, his voice carrying the worry I feel surge through our bond. “Nobody knows what to do because we don’t even know what’s going on. You vanished after the ceremony, and your parents are brushing aside our questions.” He pauses to breathe. “The pack is coming to us for answers, but we don’t have them.”

“Questions like?” Aiden prompts before I can reply.

“Questions like, are you going to mate or reject each other?” Beckett retorts, glaring at him.

“I think what we walked in on answers that question,” Aiden’s beta cuts in with a snicker that dies the second I look at him.

“Everyone’s just really confused,” Isabel interjects, stepping in as mediator. “They want to know what’s happening, and theydeserveanswers.”

They do. I should’ve been with my pack first thing this morning, not caught up with Aiden’s version of a wake-up call, effectively abandoning my pack on my first day as alpha.

“First, we’re not rejecting each other,” I glance at Aiden, and when he nods, I continue. “We’re going to merge the packs.”

Muted silence.

“I’m sorry, I thought you said merge,” Beckett says with a nervous laugh.

“Merge?” The beta—his name is something starting with an E—asks. “Like you’re staying together?”

“Like actually seeing this through?” Isabel adds.

“Merge?” Beckett repeats. “You want to merge two packs with over a thousand wolves in each?”

“Yes, yes, and yes,” Aiden answers as he cocks an arm over the back of the sofa and rests his fingers against his temple.

I force my eyes away from the ink on those fingers. “We’ll need a meeting with both packs to bring everyone up to speed,” I say as I look at Beckett. “We’ll have it here, in these packlands. I want everyone here at seven on the dot, not a second later.”

Beckett and Isabel lower their eyes and nod without protest, while E—I swear Isabel just said it—turns to Aiden. “We’re letting them in?” he asks before he looks at me with a nervous smile. “I mean, I know we were in your lands yesterday and that was great, but is a joint assembly the best idea right now? We’re not even prepped for that.”

“You wanted answers, right?” Aiden says with a shrug. “We’ll have them, so get the word out. Seven on the dot.”

With no room to argue, they all bow their heads and rise. Aiden and I follow suit, and while Aiden’s beta shuffles over to him, I corner Isabel and Beckett before they can leave.

“Everything is fine,” I promise before they can lather on all the questions. “Yes, we’re actually mates. It’s not a trick or hex. We’ve decided not to break the bond for the good of the packs.”

They nod, though their unspoken questions linger.

“And he’s …?” Isabel glances between Aiden and me, brows waggling. It takes everything not to melt into the floor as I try to stop my skin from heating. I amnotgoing to make a habit of blushing.

“Just focus on organising the meeting for this evening, please.”

“Sure thing.” She loops her arm with Beckett’s, who studies me for a long moment.

He’s concerned—very concerned—but our bond is too strong for him not to feel how calm I am. It reassures him in the ways I can’t right now, and he wordlessly relaxes with a nod. They leave and, thankfully, Aiden’s beta is not far behind.

Aiden and I don’t move a muscle until the door clicks shut. But the moment it does, I let out a sigh, and he sinks back into the couch with a groan.

“You know it’s going to be like that all the time now, right?” he says. “The staring, the questions, the doubts. They’re all going to think we’re crazy for going through with this. Fuck—wearecrazy for going through with this.”

He keeps rambling, oblivious to the fact that I’m not facing him, which is a good thing really. I don’t need him realising that my mind is still stuck on what happened before our friends stumbled in. His mouth on my neck. His hands dragging sounds out of me I didn’t know I could make.

“Say please.”

My skin heats, and I make a beeline for the office I’d found last night. “We only have a few hours to plan what we’re going to say.”